New York City sports radio station WFAN (660 AM, 101.99 FM) has retooled its lineup now that afternoon drive host Mike Francesa has retired for the second time. WFAN has the distinction of being the first radio station to adopt the 24/7 sports talk format.
Tag: WFAN
Mike Francesa, the iconic sports radio host, has announced he is leaving his drive-time platform after ruling the New York City airwaves for about 30 years on WFAN (660 AM, 101.99 FM), now owned by Entercom, by the end of the year.
A federal judge today sentenced former New York City sports radio WFAN host Craig Carton to 3-1/2 year behind bars for his involvement in an apparent Ponzi scheme. Carton has admitted to being a high-rolling gambling addict which led to the wrongdoing. Clinton-appointed Judge Colleen McMahon threw Carton a curve ball by opening up with the tired talk radio refrain, “Colleen from New York. First time, long time,” the New York Post reported.
After his much hyped mid-December 2017, retirement, iconic WFAN host Mike Francesa returned to the New York City sports radio station’s airwaves about a year ago. Since then, his compulsive tendency to rewrite history has gotten far worse, which is saying something. Francesa teamed with Chris Russo on one of the most all-time successful sports-talk programs, theMike and the Mad Dog show, from 1989 to 2008 on WFAN (660 AM, 101.9 FM and Internet streaming) until the “Mad Dog” defected to SiriusXM (and subsequently MLB TV). Francesa flew solo starting as of September 2008. Long presiding over the number-one radio show in the NYC-area afternoon drive demo, Francesa and ESPN rival Michael Kay find themselves locked in a close battle for sports dominance. (Check back for updates on the winter ratings book.) Coming out of his brief retirement, “sports doctor” Francesa appears to be sick of sports or vice versa. He’s lost his grip on the rhetorical fastball. One wonders how long WFAN or Mike himself, who is operating without a contract with the Entercom-owned station, will keep going through the motions. And the madness is hardly restricted to March.
WFAN is perhaps best known for imperious, top-rated afternoon drive talk show host Mike Francesa who retired in December to much FANfare and hoopla only to unretire a few months later after the successor show tanked in the ratings.
Let’s review what’s happened over the course of 10 months at WFAN:
• September: Craig Carton gets arrested, resigns.
• December: Mike Francesa leaves
• April: Mike Francesa comes back
• July: Joe Benigno gets sued for…..things.
What a time to be Mark Chernoff.